


while you were sleeping (I didn't fall in love with you)

by isloremipsumafterall (orphan_account)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-20 05:42:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2417051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/isloremipsumafterall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz's whole life changes the day he saves Trip and is mistaken for his fiancee at the hospital. The mix-up brings him into to Trip's family life while Trip is in a coma, which is how he meets Trip's brother: Mack, and slowly falls in love. (or, the While You Were Sleeping fic that no one expected.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	while you were sleeping (I didn't fall in love with you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plinys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/gifts).



> One day plinys made a comment on something I wrote on tumblr that it made her think of While You Were Sleeping, which in turn made me watch the movie, which turned into this monster. Beta'd by the wonderful plinys as well~

“But I was going to…I was going to…I was going to marry him.”

It’s been one of the strangest days in Fitz’s life.

Maybe not the strangest, that day belongs to when he and his father got into the car accident last year that scarred his brain. It makes it harder for him to come up with the right words, stumbling over them and at a loss on how to communicate with people now and that leaves him frustrated a lot of the time.

It always has people taking advantage of his sometimes actual inability to say no since his boss got him to work over Christmas and that’s what caused this whole strange day. Every day Fitz took the subway in to work and every day at the time he did it coincided with when a handsome stranger, who smiled and winked at Fitz every day, took it as well. During these times Fitz lets his mind go wandering to situations where he asks the stranger out and who knows, eventually marries him and everything is fine.

Today had started off like any other, the handsome stranger brushing past him with a grin and the ever present ‘Moby Dick’ in his hand but after only a few minutes Fitz had heard yelling coming from where the stranger was standing and had looked over to see him pushed on to the track by some kids.

“No no no no no.” Fitz rushed over, looking down where the stranger lay. “Are you- Are you-”

His mind scatters over the words and a blaring horn from the oncoming train has him give up on them entirely. Instead Fitz hops over the ledge and on to the tracks, shaking the stranger and getting no response and getting more worried as the train gets closer. In desperation he grabs onto the strangers shoulder and rolls them; the train flies by them and the stranger’s eyes crack open briefly before he’s out like a light again.

That leads to Fitz standing here, watching the doors close as the stranger is led away and at a loss for what he should do now.

“Oh dear, follow me.” A nurse talks his arm and leads him down the hallway and to a chair. “Just wait right here, I’ll let you know when your fiancée has been finished being examined.”

“My. My.” Fitz’s hands curl in frustration again when the word won’t come, nails biting in to his palm. The nurse merely smiles at him, pats his arm, and walks away.

Maybe an hour later she comes back and leads him further into the hospital to a room where Fitz can see the stranger lying there.

“He’s in a coma, we aren’t sure when he’ll come out of it but I’ll just leave you to it then.” She says kindly and slips out of the room. He looks around the room and sighs, opting to sit down since why not.

“So um, yes. Hi. We’ve never been uh, been – introduced, yes. I’m Fitz.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

His droops in the chair, the sound of machines and the strangers breathing filling the empty spaces of the room, minutes later the peace is shattered by yelling as people walk in to the room.

“Trip!” A woman about his age yells and rushes towards the bed and for the first time in the months that Fitz has seen this stranger he learns his name. She has a wedding ring on her hand and Fitz’s heart sky rockets in worry that maybe these two are married.

“Skye, love, don’t shake him like that.” Another woman steps up and rests her hands on the first woman –Skye’s – shoulders. She has a ring that matches Skye’s and Fitz lets out a breathe of relief he didn’t realize he was holding.

Then he begins to plot his escape, because obviously this is Trip’s family and he shouldn’t be here at all no matter what the nurse mistakenly thought. Before he can inch out the door though the nurse and doctor enter and the doctor eyes him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m uh, no one. Was just-”

The nurse cuts him off, “He’s his fiancée.”

The room explodes in a fury of activity and raised voices and all eyes are on him. Once upon a time Fitz may have been okay with this but now it just makes him uncomfortable as he tries to find the words to explain there’s been a mishap.

“Trip didn’t say he had a fiancée.” The older woman frowns at him, looking at him suspiciously. Next to her a man leans against the wall his hand over his heart and she turns back to him. “Phil, Phil are you okay?”

“Is his heart condition acting up again, May?” Skye asks the older woman. The lines in May’s face get deeper in worry. The woman next to Skye pulls away from her to stand in front of Phil and holds his wrist in a manner that Fitz can tell she’s taking his pulse.

“I’m okay, Jemma. Really. This is just quite a shock that Trip wouldn’t tell us this.” Phil pushes her away gently.

Throughout all this the last man in the room who carries a scar over his left eye is still staring at Fitz and making it impossible for him to slip out without him seeing. Fitz is debating doing it anyway when everyone looks his way again.

“Soooo.” Skye begins, sidles up next to him and throws an arm over his shoulder. “Who the hell are you?”

“Skye.” May and Phil say at the same time in the same exasperated tone.

“That’s no way to welcome someone in to the family.” Phil continues, he comes up to Fitz’s other side. “So you’re Trip’s fiancée.”

“Um. That is. Not, not-”

“Give him some breathing room.” Jemma shoos both Phil and Skye away from him and smiles. “It’s quite all right, these two can be rather unbearable, I discovered it when I married her and came in to the family.” She jerks her thumb towards Skye who just looks proud of herself for all those facts. “Though I supposed you must already know that since Trip can be far too much like Skye too.”

He nods because until he can get out of there the safest thing to do seems to be going with it.

“It still seems strange that Trip wouldn’t have told us.” May’s lips are pressed together hard and Fitz has to awkwardly laugh because this woman looks like she could kill him and no one would ever find him and how on earth is he supposed to get out of this alive?

The nurse cuts in just then, probably in attempt to help him “Did you know that he also saved his life? Jumped right down on to the tracks after him.”

Fitz yelps when Skye and Phil crush him in a sudden hug, Jemma’s eyes get a little teary, and even May’s look softens.

“Oh you must love Trip so much to have braved a train like that. That’s very heroic…I’m sorry, we haven’t gotten your name yet.” Jemma’s looking at him for an answer.

“Fitz. Leo Fitz. Just Fitz is, is fine.”

“Well, ‘Just Fitz’.” Phil looks far too amused at that joke, “I think we all need to get better acquainted.”

“I actually need to get, to get-”

“Going?” Jemma offers and he nods.

“Yes, that.”

“But you’ll come back right?” Skye leans in close. “I mean you haven’t even met Mack yet and we hardly know anything about you.”

“Mack?” He asks before he can stop himself.

“Our brother.” Skye responds, Fitz can’t help but be a little puzzled about all this because none of them look like a typical family.

Phil must see the confusion on his face because he laughs, “She means their adopted brother, all our kids are adopted.”

Skye nods along with it. “Yup. And you should meet Mack. You’re just his type. I mean, not that that means anything since you’re engaged to Trip and all…”

“Skye stop confusing him.” May pulls out her wallet and takes a card from it, passing it to Fitz. “Here, let us know when you’re coming back or if you need to talk or anything.”

Fitz takes it but plans on burning it something so he can put this whole thing behind him. The family waves him out and as soon as he’s from their sight he rushes down the hall.

Luck isn’t on his side as an orderly bumps into him. “Oh, you’re the patient in 306’s fiancée right? Patient Antoine Triplett?”

Now he knows his full name at least, “No, see there’s been a-”

“Here’s his box of things that came in with him. Best give it to you do it won’t get lost.”

A box is shoved in his hands and his fingers curl around it automatically and he’s left alone with it in standing in front of an elevator. It seems about good as any time to call it a day and shuffle back to his apartment.

~~

The problem with going back to his apartment though is that the second he steps in he’s hit with a wave on loneliness. His mother died years ago and his father passed away from complications in surgery after the accident and now it’s just Fitz. No one else, just Fitz. Thinking back to Phil calling him that makes him smile a bit; at least Trip had the nicest family to keep him company while he recovered.

There are two messages on his machine from his boss, one yelling at him for not coming in and another telling him he saw the news and not to worry about it. Fitz erases both of them, drops the box of Trip’s stuff in the hallway and starts making himself dinner since he hasn’t eaten since morning and it’s nearing four o’clock.

A knock on the door tears his attention away from putting his frozen pizza in the oven for his Christmas dinner and he opens the door to see his next door neighbour standing there.

Grant isn’t bad as far as neighbours go, the only problem is that last year they dated for a while and after it ended Grant will still occasionally try to ask him out.

“Grant.” Fitz nods his head.

“Leopold.” Grant grins, like Fitz didn’t tell him a million times not to use his first name let alone the full version of it. “Dinner tonight? I hear you had a hectic day.”

“Yes. It was that. Which is why I’d like to, um, to-”

“Come over and relax with me, it is Christmas.”

The problem with Grant is that whenever Fitz would stumble on his words he’d fill the spaces with all the wrong ones and read Fitz the wrong way.

A lot of people do, it’s a nightmare at work for Fitz half the time.

“No.” Fitz sighs, every second the door remains open he feels more and more drained, his accent getting thicker. “Good night, Grant.”

He shuts the door before the protesting can start and trudges back to the tiny kitchenette.

~~

A few hours later he’s almost regretting not taking Ward up on the offer. After all the excitement today he keeps being reminded of Trip’s family that seemed so caring and welcoming. There’s a pit of guilt in him that’s keeping him stir crazy because he hardly even knows these people and feels terrible for lying to them. Or at least not straightening out the truth right away. He isn’t even sure he could get the words out if he wanted to now.

It’s best to just put it behind him and not think about it, or about the card that May handed him that he hasn’t burned and had instead stuck on his fridge.

Another flash of guilt has him pacing the apartment before he gives up and grabs his coat.

He hurries out of the apartment and back over to the hospital. At the very least if he can’t confess to Trip’s family then he should confess to Trip even if the man is unconscious.

The hospital seat is uncomfortable but Fitz pushes it from his mind as he begins. “You’re going to wake up and things will be a little. A little…”

He snaps his fingers trying to wake up his brain. “Confusing. That’s it. I’m sorry about the mess. And lying to your family.”

He sighs. “I wish it was real. I was quite, uh, quite – taken, with you.”

Fitz stumbles over some more apologies, grateful that Trip isn’t awake to hear his babbling and fractured sentences.

His eyes feel heavy the longer he goes, the day catching up to him and the spaces between his apologies get longer and longer as he feels himself nodding off. Eventually he falls fast first into Trip’s bed and slips into sleep, unaware of the figure standing outside of Trip’s room staring at him contemplatively.

~~

He’s woken by the yelling of his name and jerks his head up. Trip’s family comes into the room and takes in the wide eyed Fitz.

“Were you here all night?” May asks, worriedly taking in his drawn complexion. Fitz nods, mouth open in surprise.

“Of course he was, this is his fiancée we’re talking about here.” Phil shoots him an approving nod from behind May.

Skye and Jemma come closer and fuss over his clothes which as wrinkled from the position he slept in. Behind them all is the man whose name Fitz still has learnt.

He brushes Jemma and Skye’s hands off and steps away. “Sorry, work. Got to go.”

“Hold up a moment.” May stops him.

“We just wanted to run something by you first.” Phil explains when he looks confused. “We never got to celebrate Christmas last night what with everything that happened so we were going to tonight; we were hoping you’d join us. You could even meet Mack this time.”

“Our address is on the card I gave you, if you will.” May picks up where Phil leaves

They’re all looking at him with such hope, like some of their own happiness will be made by him being there and it breaks Fitz’s heart.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll think about it.” He mutters some apologies and flees the room, when he’s far enough away he switches to a litany of broken curses and hits his forehead a few times for good measure.

Under no circumstances is he going to have dinner with Trip’s family for Christmas of all things.

No good can come of it.

~~

He’s standing in front of the house that’s gone all out in Christmas decorations and regretting his life choices.

He told himself he wasn’t going to do this.

He really planned on not doing this.

Yet here he is anyway.

Fitz takes a deep breath and begins to walk towards the house, only stopping when his name is called out. He looks over to see the man with the scarred eye walking towards.

“Fitz.” The man intones, holding out his hand. “Nick Fury, we were never properly introduced.”

Fitz takes his hand and nods. “Hello.”

“I’m Trip’s godfather.” Nick goes on; he waves back to the house that’s right next to the one they’re standing in front of. “Grew up with Phil and May and when they moved I moved in right next to them. Watch Trip and the other kids grow up and kept my eye on them.”

Fitz isn’t really sure where this is going or what prompted it at all but Nick is looking at him like he should say something so he nods and “Okay.”

“What I’m getting at is…I love this family, it’s my family too. And I would do anything to protect them and don’t want to see them get hurt.”

“I wouldn’t either.” Fitz blurts out. “Want to see them get hurt that is. They seem very…”

“Special?”

“Yes.” Fitz nods. Nick relaxes minutely and claps his shoulder.

“Good, shall we?” He leads them both into the house where they’re welcomed by a fury of hellos and hugs.

~~

The dinner is delicious, though the eggnog is a little horrible.

Skye claims she hasn’t gotten the mixture down right and is just experimenting with it and that Jemma should be proud since she’s a scientist and all. F

itz learns that Skye works in programming and Jemma is a biochemist, there’s temptation on his tongue to talk to both of them about it, but he’s worried if he does, and can’t get the words out, they’ll look at him like an idiot.

As it stands whenever he skips a word they look at him like he’s lost or something.

Sometimes Fitz feels that he is in his head.

After dinner the family passes out gifts and that’s when Phil turns to him. “So what made you fall for Trip?”

“Er…” Fitz takes a drink of the eggnog to stall for time and tries not to wince. “His smile I suppose. I just saw it and…knew.”

“That’s very romantic.” Jemma leans against Skye. “I was the same way when I met Skye.”

Skye aw’s and kisses Jemma when she’s close enough. The easy affection makes Fitz smile but also wishes he had someone who would kiss him like that; someone like Trip, his supposed fiancée, in fact.

Eventually the night winds down and Nick slips back off to his own place, Fitz goes to leave but May and Phil both insist he stay the night, bringing down blankets for him to rest on the couch.

He passes out easier than last night despite the guilt that’s still eating away at his heart and only wakes up when the door creaks open and he hears footsteps.

More footsteps sound from upstairs and he hears Skye’s voice as she walks down.

“Mack!” There’s a rustle of clothes and an umph in what he assumes is Skye hugging her brother.

“Whoa slow down there. How’s Trip doing?” The voice is a low timbre that fills the room; it reminds Fitz of a rumbling engine like on the cars his father liked working on.

“He’s good for all that he’s in a coma, the doctor’s pretty sure he’ll pull out of it soon. Jemma looked over his charts and even she thinks so. But keep it down would ya? Fitz is sleeping on the couch.”

“Fitz?”

“Trip’s fiancée.”

“Trip has a fiancée?!” The voice hisses, shocked.

“Yup. He’s a sweetheart, you’ll like him Mack, I promise. Hell, I bet as soon as you meet him you’re gonna wish you saw him before Trip.”

He hears Mack make an uncommitted grunt and the two shuffle away.

Fitz falls back into uneven sleep.

~~

Before anyone else gets up he dials a cab to come pick him up, intending to slip out before anyone can notice.

His plan only partially works because after he calls the cab and turns around there’s an unfamiliar man standing in the doorway he can only assume is Mack.

“Fitz right?” He nods and Mack sticks out his hand. “I’m Mack. I hear you’re marrying my brother.”

Mack’s hand engulfs his own. Fitz isn’t small by any means but Mack is built like a powerhouse. He’s got bulk on him to spare, and Fitz wonders how he ever found a plaid shirt that looked loose on him still, because everything looks like it would stretch across the frame of this man.

Fitz also looks extraordinarily pale next to him, Mack’s dark skinned and Fitz’s Scottish background makes him pale to begin with. At least Mack’s not as a dark as Trip because he noticed when standing in the hospital that Trip makes him look like a ghost; one he sometimes feels that he is.

“I, um, yes. That is right. I’m marrying your brother. Trip. Trip. I’m marrying Trip.” His cheeks grow hot as the words tumble out but Mack just looks to be amused by it and leans down into Fitz’s space.

“You okay there?”

Mack’s eyes are a dark brown so unlike Fitz’s own blue eyes. They remind Fitz of Trip’s eyes almost, though Trip certainly was never this close to him and looking at him with concern.

It almost ticks Fitz off because he can take care of himself for certain.

“Fine.” He steps back. “It’s fine. If you’ll excuse me I have get going.”

“Not gonna stay for breakfast?” Mack pulls back. “We have coffee. Or tea, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

The offer is tempting but Fitz really has to start distancing himself from this family. “No, that’s um, quite all right.” He slides past Mack to the front door, grateful when there’s a honk from a car horn outside. “That’s my ride.”

He’s about to leave when he hears his name being called and glances back at Mack.

“We should meet up again. I’d love to know more about the person marrying my brother. How about dinner tonight?”

“What?” Fitz’s mouth falls open.

“Dinner. Food. Talking. Get to know each other.” It sounds like a date but Fitz knows it isn’t, he supposes if he had any siblings that mysteriously had fiancées he’d want to know them too.

“Sure.”

“Great, give me your address. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

His mind blurs between giving Mack his address, getting in the cab and getting home. He gratefully has today off and just tinkers with some projects he’s brought home with him, working on a new car engine. He can’t quite seem to get the formulas right for it and it’s been giving him a headache since the project started. After a while he gives up and puts on Doctor Who to distract him.

~~

He must have drifted off because the knock on the door startles him to alertness. He opens in to see Mack standing there.

“You ready?”

Fitz grabs his jacket and pretends that he is, agreeing.

“You sure cause if I were you I don’t know if I’d be going out with my hair all squished like that.” Mack pokes his head and Fitz looks in the mirror that’s by the doorway. His hair is smushed from the angle he must have been sleeping on it. It looks ridiculous.

“I always wear it like this.” Is what he says instead, if only to not be riled up by Mack’s remark.

“Uh hunh.” Mack looks like he doesn’t believe him at all. “So we gonna do this thing or you want to fix your hair first. I can hang out if you want to take a shower.”

He hates that Mack’s probably right, he really should take a shower, so he sighs and pulls the door back so Mack can come in.

Hu mumbles something to the effect of telling Mack to wait in his living room and heads to the shower, trying to be as quick as he can.

He thinks he hears voices coming from outside the bathroom as he showers but he can’t be certain, hissing when he tries to listen in and ends up with soap in his eyes. He dries himself off and dresses quickly stepping out to see Mack frowning at his door.

“What’s wrong?” Fitz asks.

Mack turns to him, anger written all over his face. “You two timing my brother?”

“What?” He’s not even one timing Mack’s brother but Mack doesn’t know that either. “No.”

“Then what’s with your boyfriend coming in here and making a fuss over everything, hunh?”

Fitz’s mouth falls open and shut, mind scrambling to put the pieces together to what Mack’s saying. “What boyfriend?”

“The guy across the hall, Grant something or other.”

Relief floods through him and he starts laughing; something he honestly hasn’t done in a long time. “That isn’t my boyfriend.”

It’s even more of a relief that words are coming to him easier given the ridiculousness of the situation, normally Fitz’s brain would have frozen on him by now.

“Why’d he storm in here claiming to be then?”

“We used to date.” Fitz explains. “It didn’t – didn’t.”

“End well?”

He nods.

“Oh.” Mack runs a hand across his head. “Sorry man, for jumping to conclusions like that.”

“You should be.” Fitz crosses his arms and tries to look as insulted as he can. “I’m offended.”

Mack snorts. “Sure you are. Tell you what, I’ll pay for dinner as an apology.”

It’s sounding more and more like a date, but Fitz isn’t one to pass up on any kind of free food.

“Any place you wanna go?” Mack asks.

Fitz considers going somewhere fancy but ultimately makes Mack drive them to the place he feels most comfortable that’s across the street from his work. It’s a sandwich shop that has the best sandwich, prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella sandwich with a hint of pesto aioli, he’s ever had that isn’t his mothers.

“I say I’ll pay and you take us to a sandwich shop.” Mack comments as they sit down.

“The best one.” Fitz retorts.

“So how did you meet my brother?”

“Train station.”

“And it was love at first sight then?” Mack doesn’t sound like he’s mocking Fitz, but it makes his metaphorical feathers rise.

“What’s that supposed to mean then? I’m not good enough for love at first, first sight or something.”

“Hey man that isn’t what I said.” Mack holds his hands up. “Just wondering how it happened was all.”

“Yes. That’s exactly how it happened.” For him anyway.

“What is it you do job wise?”

He points to the building across the street. He works for a well-known company that engineers technology used in various machine parts. One day he can be working on a computer chip and the next a car engine.

“You’re kidding.”

Fitz shoots him an annoyed look, ready to snap again.

“I don’t mean it like that calm down. I mean in the sense that I’ve always wanted to work there. I’m a mechanic myself.”

Fitz’s eyebrows shoot up because that’s something he never would have guessed.

At the same time he isn’t surprise about it.

Mack looks like he belongs under the hood of a car greased up with streaks of oil on his cheek, but he doesn’t look like he belongs in the labs Fitz works in.

“Yeah I know. Don’t look the part. Applied there once, didn’t get in obviously. I can make the parts but coming up with all that creative stuff…not my specialty.”

Fitz saves himself from answering immediately by shoving the sandwich in his mouth and taking the largest bite he can. When he’s done swallowing he finally responds. “It isn’t an easy um, easy-”

He wants to scream in frustration because he was doing so well. Now he just looks like an idiot in from of Mack for not being able to spit the word out.

“Field. Yeah I gathered that.” Mack doesn’t take note of his stumble. “Might get there some day though. Could always use a few pointers if you have the time.”

He doesn’t, but what comes out of his mouth is “Okay.”

He doesn’t have the time to take it back because Mack grins at him, wide and genuine and it’s possibly even better than Trip’s smile in the mornings because there’s no doubt that this one is directly for Fitz. He tries not to think too much on the pleased feeling that thrums through him at that.

“So what’s with the word slip ups?”

“You’re rather blunt.”

“You want me to beat around the bush? Skye and Jemma said you did it before too.” There’s no cruelty in Mack’s face when he asks, just plain curiosity.

Which is probably why the story of the accident falls out of his mouth in starts and stops, when he’s done he’s more than ready to bolt out of the restaurant, so as to not deal with the pity, but Mack’s just nodding.

“That’s pretty terrible. Can’t say I know what you’re going through but how are you holding up?”

No one’s asked him that since the day of the funeral.

“I’m okay.”

He’s surprised to find that he doesn’t feel like he’s lying too much when he says that.

The night isn’t going as bad as he expected, Mack’s decent enough company as he starts a tale of Trip and the time he found Nick’s lighter and he and Skye accidentally lit the sink on fire. By the time the night winds down and they’re standing back in front of his doorstep he finds that he doesn’t want Mack to actually leave.

Truthfully Fitz almost wishes this was a date so he could push up and kiss Mack goodnight.

“Are you going to see Trip tomorrow?”

Any thoughts of kissing Mack flee his mind at that. “Uh. Yes. Suppose I will.”

“I’ll come with you. When do you finish work?”

“Five…ish.”

“Meet you outside your work then. We can grab dinner after.”

This is just Mack being nice to his brother’s fiancée really and Fitz knows it, but it’s been a while since anyone wanted to spend time with him let alone two days in a row so he just nods.

Mack grins and claps his shoulder as a goodbye.

And if he watches Mack pull away from his apartment building to get one last look at him before he’s gone, that’s no one’s business but his own.

~~

Sure enough when he steps out of the building the next day at five Mack’s waiting for him in his truck.

The ride to the hospital is pretty quiet, Mack asks him how his day was but Fitz can’t make himself explain everything. Mack seems to understand it anyway.

“So you’re building a new engine then?”

“Yes.” Fitz relaxes in the seat, glad that Mack picked up on that.

“That’s cool, maybe one day I’ll get to work on it and install it in some cars.”

He’s curious what it would be like to see Mack work. He knows he gets single minded in his job and wonders if Mack would be the same, all the focus driven in to one thing.

The hospital’s quiet when they arrive, the rest of the family is already back home Mack explains to him.

He talks to Trip in constant low voice, at one point he comments that Trip’s lucky to have someone who loves him waiting for him when he gets up, looking at Fitz with affection.

It makes Fitz feel even worse about this lie that he’s dug himself in to, he’s already trying to think of a way out but his brain just isn’t working right to give him one. It isn’t even working right to think of an excuse when Mack pulls up to the family house and they’re going to have dinner there with everybody else.

He sits next to Jemma and across from Mack during the dinner.

Which means he gets the perfect view of Mack’s facial expressions as he talks about visiting Trip and teases Skye about her day. In retaliation Skye throws peas in his beard while Phil shakes his head at his children and tells Fitz he’s so sorry, but at least he should be used to it since Trip is just as bad.

Dinner finishes up and Fitz stands. “I should get going.”

Mack stands up too. “I’ll drive you.”

“It’s fine.”

“Nah man, I insist, peace of mind that you got home okay and all.”

Fitz rubs his forehead to get rid of the ensuing headache and just nods.

As they get ready by the doorway Skye lets out a whoop of delighted laughter and points above them. “Mistletoe Mack. Pucker up, you can tell Trip how good a kisser his boyfriend is when Trip gets up.”

Jemma hits her girlfriend on the arm lightly for Mack.

Fitz completely expects him to ignore it but there’s the tickle of Mack’s beard on his cheek and brush of lips against his that’s barely even lasts a second but leaves him wishing it was longer. Mack doesn’t look at all embarrassed when he pulls back so Fitz rolls his eyes and pretends that he won’t think about this later that night.

“Sorry about that, she’d be a pain in my ass if I didn’t.” Mack offers, by way of explanation, while they’re in the trunk.

Fitz shrugs.

“You’re not mad at me for it are you?”

“No.”

“You sound like you are.”

“I’m not.” He insists.

Mack hums. “I won’t tell Trip if that’s what you’re worried about.”

It isn’t but maybe if he lets Mack think it is he’ll drop it, so he mutters thanks and is more than grateful that they pull up to Fitz’s apartment building after a minute.

“Hey,” Mack reaches out to touch his wrist as he opens the door. “Everything okay?”

Fitz nods.

“Just thinking of a project.” He lies.

“Okay, just kind of feels like you’re giving me the blow off here and that’s fine. If you want to be alone I get it but if you want to talk I’m here.”

“Tomorrow.” Fitz blurts out and then frowns at himself. “Come by tomorrow.”

He steps out of the car before he can regret that.

~~

When he says come by tomorrow he expects that Mack will actually come by his house, but he’s waiting outside Fitz’s work again when he steps out.

“I got Chinese food.” Mack holds up a bag.

It makes Fitz’s stomach grumble just from the smell of it and he scrambles into the car so they can get going.

They eat in his tiny kitchenette, legs bumping in to each other under the table and it’s obvious that Mack’s tall frame is not suited in his apartment.

Or is just the right size. Fitz can’t seem to get the math right because Mack is distracting him by licking the sauce off his thumb.

They end up on his couch and Mack immediately starts looking at the machine that’s in front of them on the table. It’s a smaller version of the engine Fitz has been working on, a prototype he brought home to fiddle with.

“So this it then?”

“Yes.”

Mack whistle as he twists it around in his hands. “Impressive.”

Fitz flushes at the praise. “It isn’t done.”

Mack looks over at him, eyebrow raised at Fitz’s expression.

“It’s…it’s missing something.” Fitz says, then jumps up to pace.

He begins muttering about components and parts that aren’t going together in his head though he feels like they already should be. This whole project has been like working with déjà vu and the answers at the tip of his tongue but he can’t tell what it is.

Mack watches him calmly. Somehow that he can’t answer Mack of all people frustrates him even more and he’s suddenly pushing papers off the table.

“Hey hey, calm down.” Mack’s in front of him now. “Relax, you can figure this out. Just stop for a second.”

“No it’s missing something.” Fitz rubs at his eyes in frustration until he’s seeing spots in his vision.

“How do you know it’s missing something?” Mack asks.

“Because. Because.” He just does.

“Because…what? You already made it something?” It’s a high leap of logic but something clicks in Fitz’s brain and he’s snapping his fingers.

“Yes. Yes.” He did already make the engine. That’s why it feels so familiar to him. Before the accident he came up with something absentmindedly that day and somehow forgotten about it over the year.

“Don’t suppose you keep blueprints around here anywhere?” Mack looks around and picks up his tablet, starts flipping through the designs and Fitz’s heart races because it feels like he’s become closer to a solution now than he has in months.

“No, stop stop.” He commands as Mack passes a blueprint. “That. That. That.”

He’s hitting Mack on the arm in his excitement.

“All right, I’m with you Turbo, hang on.”

He and Mack spend the whole night bent over the engine, modifying it to work with Fitz’s old design.

Mack works on the physical piece under his direction which is a good thing because Fitz feels like he’s thrumming with energy and his hands wouldn’t work if he wanted them to. Ideas are flooding his brain like they haven’t in a long time and it’s making the engine even better than previously designed.

They fall asleep on his couch and Fitz dreams that Mack starts working at his place as Fitz’s partner; when he wakes up he wonders if he could make that a reality. He thinks he might talk to his boss tomorrow about it.

~~

The next few days they alternate between dinners at Mack’s place and dinners at Fitz’s place. If they’re at Mack’s place then Fitz crashes over when they watch a movie, pressed up to Mack’s side on the couch and laughing at Mack’s face when Skye inevitably throws popcorn at them.

If they’re at Fitz’s place then they’re a flurry of activity, as Fitz presses a designs into Mack’s hand with parts that he’s borrowed from work and watches them come to life.

He’s been more productive the past few days with Mack then he has the past year.

Mack just gets where he’s coming from in this thoughts, understanding which wire Fitz is pointing at when all he’s doing is gesturing at the machine, and just knowing what Fitz means when stumbles over the next word, picking up the flow from Fitz and going with it.

They spend New Year’s together staying up well past midnight arguing over what they should build next.

Grant comes to the door to ask for a New Year’s kiss but instead Fitz leans up to kiss Mack who’s standing next to him at the doorway and shrug an apology to Grant as he closes the door.

He misses the pleasantly surprised look in Mack’s eyes when he turns away.

He’s gotten so used to Mack being at his door now that when he opens it two days after New Years to find Nicky Fury standing there he’s taken aback.

“Er. Can I help you?”

Nick pushes him aside and steps in. “We need to talk.”

Nick waits until he closes the door before he starts up again. “I heard you, that first night when you went back to talk to Trip.”

It takes him a second to remember that night and when he does Fitz stares at Nick in abject horror. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Nick holds up his hand. “Stop. I asked you before and you said you didn’t want to hurt the family and I believe you when you say that.”

Fitz nods because it’s true; Mack’s family has been nothing but kind to him and welcoming and it has Mack in it.

That alone has made Fitz love it.

“Which is why I’m asking you to keep this up.”

Fitz couldn’t have heard that right. “What?”

Nick sighs, “Trip is wonderful to have a godson but he’s also trouble. No one in the family thought he would settle down until you came along. You’ve brought the family some peace of mind about Trip and I’d personally like to keep seeing it that way.”

“But I’m- I’m-”

“Lying, yeah I know.” Nick clasps his shoulder. “Listen, Trip could fall in love with you. A lot of people could but Trip definitely could. When he gets out of the coma I’m asking you to give him a chance. Go along with it. If things don’t work out then break it off. Just don’t tell them the truth, you’d devastate the family.”

Mack’s face comes to mind, hurtful and hating of Fitz and it crushes him.

At least if he agrees to this then there’s a chance that this could all work out okay, Trip does sound like the kind of person Fitz could fall in love with. He nods and Fury squeezes his shoulder in thanks and then walks out.

Before he can shut the door Mack’s there.

“Was that Nick?” Mack asks.

“Yeah.” Fitz leans against the doorway heavily.

“What was he doing here?” Mack eyes him. “You don’t look so hot.”

Which is funny because Fitz feels like he’s burning up with this lie that he’s started. “I’m not.”

“Let me just go out and grab some chicken soup and I’ll be back then.”

Fitz shakes his head. “Not tonight.”

He closes the door on Mack and the last thing he sees is a hurt look pass Mack’s face; the very thing he was looking to avoid.

He doesn’t sleep well that night at all, getting up to try to put something together and ends up throwing parts at the walls in anger at himself.  

He has only himself to blame and he knows it.

~~

The problem is that he just can’t stay away from Mack.

Mack comes back the next day with soup made by Jemma and barges his way in, not that Fitz does much to stop him.

He takes a look around the torn up room and fixes Fitz with a frown. “Next time call me, Turbo.”

He raps his knuckles over Fitz’s head. “We can think of something to make that brain of yours stop for a bit together.”

They spend the rest of the day on Fitz’s couch and that’s when he discovers Mack’s name isn’t Mack.

“Alphonso.” Fitz snickers.

“Shut it _Leopold_.” Mack shoves his knees that are pressed against Mack’s.

He’s horrified to find that he doesn’t mind his full name when it’s Mack saying it.

“So you must be from Scotland right?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Fitz deadpans, accent coming in thicker.

Mack rolls his eyes at Fitz. “Gotta admit I’m envious my brother can kiss the smartass from your mouth at times like these.”

Mack’s kissed him more than his brother has, not that he knows that.

Fitz kicks Mack’s leg. “Shush it.”

Mack throws an arm around him, warm and heavy. “It’s cool. I would too if I could get away with it.”

This close Fitz could turn his head just a bit and kiss the smartass from Mack’s mouth if he wanted to, and he does want to.

Instead,he swallows the lump in his throat and uses that Mack thinks he’s under the weather to his advantage, coughing. “Hope I make you…make you….”

“Sick? Now that ain’t nice.” Mack doesn’t leave, weight just falls on Fitz more. “I’ll take the risk anyway.”

It warms him to hear Mack say that, he leans in to Mack just a bit and pretends that he could have this.

~~

Trip wakes up three days after that. Mack calls him at work and says he’s already on his way to pick Fitz up before he can disagree to it.

“I don’t think. I don’t think.” Fitz feels like he’s going to be sick, he twists away from Mack who’s leading them down the hall to march into the bathroom.

Mack trails after him. “Hey. It’s okay. I know this is freaky but I guarantee you that my brother will want to see you.”

He wants to snap that Trip doesn’t even know him but can’t. Mack’s hand rests on his back. “I’ll be there the whole time, Turbo.”

Fitz steels himself as best he can and nods. They walk in to the room with Mack’s hand on Fitz’s back still and the second Trip sees them he snickers.

“You get a boyfriend while I was out Mack?”

Everyone in the room freezes and Fitz’s pulse sky rockets, Mack presses against Fitz as he leans closer. “That ain’t cool Trip. Treating your fiancée like that.”

“Yeah man, don’t make us disown you, we’ll adopt Fitz instead.” Skye quips, hands on her hips.

Fitz wants to bury himself in a hole and die; his panicked eyes meet Nicks’ who is shaking his head.

“Fitz?” Trip asks.

Fitz waves his hand awkwardly.

Trip squints at him. “You look familiar…”

They’re rushed out as the doctor comes in and let back in an hour later.

The whole time they wait the family pats Fitz’s and tells him it will all be okay.

Mack’s hand never leaves his back, a solid presence that grounds him and feels like the only thing that’s keeping him standing.

“Selective amnesia.” The doctor says. “Not uncommon mind you, just unfortunate.”

“You’ll remember Fitz soon.” May looks between Trip and Fitz with one of her small smiles. “He’s been a welcome addition to the family.”

“You picked right on this one Trip.” Skye agrees.

“He certainly did.”

It must be Fitz’s imagination that he hears jealousy in Mack’s voice and the way the hand on his back tightens minutely.

That’s it.

“We should all leave Trip to get his rest now.” Jemma says, “He needs it if his mind is going to recover any memories.”

The family shuffles out but when Fitz looks back Nick has stayed and is talking to Trip.

~~

Mack spends more and more time at his place over the next few days.

He tells Fitz as often as possible that he’s sure Trip will remember soon, every time he does he smiles but Fitz notices that it doesn’t quite reach his eyes and make them crinkle the way he enjoys seeing it the past couple of days.

He misses the genuine smiles and starts going out of his way to see if he can get them from Mack, including telling the story of old dorm pranks where he was the victim.

He savours every quiet amused huff of air and every loud guffaw from Mack.

Nights that they fall asleep on the couch Fitz presses his nose into the crook of Mack’s shoulder and memorizes the smell of oil and the way Mack’s voice fills the room when he steals Fitz’s shower and ends up singing.

It’s Jemma that suggests he and Trip take a few hours to themselves one day. Which leads to him sitting next to Trip’s bed awkwardly trying to start a sentence and failing. He wishes Mack were there to fill in the spaces.

“Look, I know I don’t remember you and I’m sorry for that. But obviously I fell in love with you if I asked you to marry me. That’s big. Biggest of the big. So what I’m getting at…” Trip brings out a case, a ring inside it. “Is maybe we should try again? Do this and figure out the rest as we go along.”

Fitz hates his life so much right now. From the corner of his eye he can see Trip’s family rounding the corner, their few hours up. Nick catches his eyes first and smiles at him, nodding.

He thinks about how everyone will take it if they find out he lied.

Fitz’s heart breaks only a little as he turns to Trip and says “Yes.”

It breaks a lot when he sees the false smile on Mack’s face.

~~

He lets himself be talked into a wedding as soon as possible.

Which apparently in this family means three days from when Trip asked him; as soon as he gets the chance he corners Nick.

“I can’t. I can’t. No. This isn’t possible.”

“Calm down. You were obviously attracted enough to my godson to say you were going to marry him in the first place. I don’t see the problem here.”

Of course Nick doesn’t.

This family is crazy; the only sane one is Mack.

“What attracted you to Trip in the first place?”

His smile, but now when Fitz goes to think of it his mind twists it and he can just see Mack grinning at him instead.

Nick must mistake the fond look on his face for something else because he nods. “There, see. You’re in love, anyone with that look is.”

Fitz can’t deny it; it’s just that it’s for the wrong person.

He wishes that he was never foolish enough to talk out loud around that nurse in the first place but then cuts that thought out because if he hadn’t then he wouldn’t have met Mack.

Even after everything it was worth it to meet Mack.

All he can do is sigh and go along with it like has been the past few weeks.

~~

Mack shows up at his door the night before he’s supposed to marry Trip in the morning.

“You ready to marry my brother tomorrow?”

Fitz grimaces.

“Hey.” Mack pulls him into a hug. “None of that now. Trip’s gonna remember you and he’s gonna be the luckiest person around, and if he’s not just tell me. I’m bigger than him; I can get him in a headlock.”

He probably could and Fitz snickers at the thought of it.

Mack lets him go but sticks close to his side as Fitz breaks out the cookies and alcohol.

After a few drinks Mack rests his chin on his hands, starting at Fitz from across the table, his eyes are warm with affection. “You know I wish I met you first.”

Fitz feels like the cookies have lodged themselves in his throat and doesn’t say anything.

~~

The morning of he digs out his best suit and piles into Mack’s truck, Mack’s left his own suit at the hospital so he wouldn’t have to worry about it, only stealing Fitz’s shower as he’s wont to do. He honestly has no idea what he’s doing anymore, counting off pros and cons in his head.

Pros:

  *          He won’t be alone anymore
  *          He won’t be hurting Mack’s family (and when did it stop being Trip’s family and start being Mack’s anyway?)
  *          He could fall in love with Trip. That’s what started this mess to begin with



Cons:

  *          He’s lying.
  *          Trip’s not Mack.
  *          Trip couldn’t ever be Mack.



“I know your minds racing a mile a minute there, Turbo, but we’re here.” Mack gestures at the hospital in front of them.

Fitz gives him a weak smile, because what else can he do?

It feels like a funeral march to him, which should have been the sixteenth warning sign on top of everything else. Trip’s standing at the end of the aisle, Mack’s already slid up to the spot next to him, they both look handsome but his eyes keep slipping over to Mack instead of staying on Trip. At one point they seek out Nicks’, who looks almost apologetic about all this.

The thing is that while Trip looks handsome and cuts quite a figure, even with an IV drip still attached to him, and maybe weeks ago Fitz would be ecstatic about this, but next to him Mack looks even better.

It’s funny because he’s never seen Mack out of those tank tops and plaid shirts that he likes wearing; the suit should just look wrong on him but all it does is accentuate every part of Mack as he shifts in it. He hasn’t taken his eyes off Fitz yet either, warm and fond despite the bittersweet smile that plays across Mack’s lips.

He reaches the altar and tears his gaze away from Mack and back to Trip.

He reminds himself that he could fall in love with Trip; he could be in love with Trip.

He isn’t.

But he could be.

He meets Mack’s gaze again.

He’s in love with Mack and this is all wrong.

“I can’t do this.” The words tumble out of his mouth. Everyone’s looking at him. “I’m. I’m sorry.”

He avoids looking at everyone, “I lied, Trip. I’m not your…not your…”

“Fiancée?” Mack offers because of course he still has the words Fitz is looking for.

Fitz nods. “It was all a mixup. I’m so sorry I screwed, um, I screwed all this.”

He gestures between the two of them and the family around them and then takes a deep breath. “Also I’m in love with Mack.”

The room explodes in a fury of noise, Fitz looks around everywhere for an escape route and catches Nicks’ eye who gestures towards the back door. As everyone crowds around them he ducks out and into the hallway. Nick’s already there somewhere.

“I’m-”

“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. I pushed you in to this and I’m sorry.” Nick scrubs his hand over his face. “I’ll explain everything to them, you go.”

Fitz nods and turns his back to walk away. The subway ride home is a strangers peering at him curiously as he tries not to cry. He feels frustrated and sad and guilty and altogether too much.

He must look a mess too because when he gets in Grant sees him and for once doesn’t say anything, just pats him on the shoulder with a sad smile and ducks back into his own apartment.

Fitz collapses on the couch; the pillows still smell a bit like Mack.

Tomorrow he’ll dump them.

For now he takes all the comfort he can get.

~~

Nick stops by two days later to apologize again.

“They must hate me.” Fitz replies glumly into his coffee cup.

“They don’t.” Nick assures him but Fitz doesn’t believe it. No family would be okay with what he did. “Fitz really, they don’t. May’s even asking if you’ll come back for dinner.”

Fitz shakes his head and Nick sighs. “The place is always open to you if you want to come back. Also Trip doesn’t blame you either and Skye is laughing over the whole situation.”

He notices that Nick doesn’t say anything about Mack or what he said at the church and before he can stop himself he opens his mouth. “What about Mack?”

Nick Fury doesn’t seem like the kind of man who could be made uncomfortable by much but Fitz doesn’t miss the slight twitch in his cheek and he groans and buries his head in his hands.

“Does he want, er, does he want me dead?”

“No.” Nick says quickly and Fitz is trying to gauge if that’s too quick or not. “Look, just come by the house and you’ll see.”

Fitz shakes his head again. He’s never going anywhere but his apartment and work and the occasional trip to the grocery store.

Nick tries to talk some more to him but Fitz says nothing, not that his mind is working anyway. It’s too stuck on the possibility that Mack hates him. Eventually Nick leaves and Fitz is left to his own devices again. He tries to build one of his new designs but the pieces just won’t come together.

He gives up in anger and lets them fall to the floor and break.

This way he’s not the only thing that’s broken in this apartment.

~~

A week later his boss stops him before he can get in to his lab.

“You asked for an assistant right?”

Fitz forgot that he had done that, gone to his boss the day after Mack had helped him build the engine and pleaded for his boss to hire Mack on.

He flushes in regret now because his boss had said he’d put an opening up and contact Mack, but of course Mack won’t come now.

“Yes but I don’t. That is, I don’t…”

His boss waves his concerns away if he was ever focusing on them at all. “You were right, you should get an assistant. I hired you one, he should be setting up right now.”

Fitz holds in the annoyed groan until his boss walks away, this isn’t what he wanted at all.

He tries to tell himself that maybe one wouldn’t be so bad if they can help him put things together but he doesn’t want just anyone.

He wants Mack.

There’s already a pile of stuff lying cluttered all over his desk, he grits his teeth so he doesn’t toss it all to the floor in rage. Looking over the room he can’t see anyone so he drops his bags and begins to pile the stuff up muttering as he goes on.

“I don’t want a –a – an assistant. Yes that’s it. Leaving things all over my desk. I like a clean space.”

“I know how you like your desk space, Turbo, relax, I was gonna clean it up.”

Fitz drops the parts in surprise, he knows that voice and only one person calls him Turbo anyway.

He whirls around and sure enough there’s Mack, larger than life, wearing a white tank top, a blue plaid shirt, and using a rag to wipe engine grease off his hands.

“I didn’t think you’d mind if I got an early start though.”

“What are you doing here?”

Mack raises an eyebrow. “Well see it turns out that some brilliant scientist liked working with me so much he asked for an assistant to help him out. I got a call a few days ago asking to come in for an interview. Seemed perfect considering that I’ve been wanting a job here for a while.”

Fitz’s mouth opens and then clicks shut. “You. What. No. You can’t work here.”

“Sure I can.” Mack leans back against the desk, his shirt bunches with the movement and makes Fitz’s mouth go dry. “Because on the plus side I’d get to work with someone I’d respect. And who I’ve grown to love.”

Fitz’s brain stops entirely at that, staring at a point in the wall behind Mack.

“Yo, Fitz.” Mack waves his hand to catch his attention. “C’mon back to me, Turbo.”

When Fitz glares at him Mack grins.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Sure do.”

“I screwed. I screwed. I messed everything up.” Fitz closes his eyes tightly.

“Nah, it’s cool. We can work through it. We’ll laugh at it later.” He hears Mack let out a quiet whuff of air, a half laugh already. A hand falls on his shoulders. “If you still want to that is.”

Fitz opens his eyes again, Mack’s far into his personal space.

Anyone else he would have scowled and shoved aside. “You mean it.”

It’s not a question, more of a statement and Mack nods.

“You aren’t. Aren’t mad.”

Mack shakes his head.

“You don’t hate me.”

“Nope.”

“You-”

“Love you. Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“So can we kiss now?”

Fitz tugs him down the rest of the way, slants his mouth over Mack’s and kisses him in a way that he’s wanted to for a while now without any need for mistletoe or New Year’s traditions.

“Smartass.” He mutters into Mack’s mouth.

Mack’s mouth curves in a grin. “Look who’s talking.”

“Thought you were going to kiss the smartass from me.” Fitz comments as he pulls back.

There’s a glint in Mack’s eyes. “That sounds like a challenge.”

Fitz shrugs but makes no claims against it.

It’s his clever ploy to get Mack to kiss him again and Mack’s on the same page because he does.

They end up going to Mack’s family’s place for dinner, Fitz gets welcome to open arms, Nick shoots him a grateful look, May offers him one of her quiet smiles, and Phil’s already asking when the wedding is going to be.

Trip’s a decent enough guy because he shakes Fitz’s hands and just says “You made it more interesting. Also thanks for saving my life still and making my brother happy.”

“Hey so if Fitz marries you are you gonna be Alphonso Fitz or is he gonna be Leo Mackenzie?” He’s forgotten Skye doesn’t know his first full name; he’s never going to tell her.

Phil brightens. “It should be a Scottish wedding then. May how do we make Haggis?”

Mack’s family is insane.

“You sure you don’t regret this?” Mack’s beard tickles his ear.

“Give me time.” Fitz knows he won’t though, leaning into Mack’s weight and enjoying when Mack’s arm snakes down and his hand presses to Fitz’s hip.

~~

**Epilogue**

“Hey Fitz,” Mack’s voice comes down the hall, “We’re certain you weren’t actually sleeping with my brother right?”

“Yeah.” Fitz comes down the hall. “Why?”

Mack is holding the box that the hospital attendant gave him full of Trip’s stuff. Including Trip’s wallet.

“Oh.” Fitz says. “We should give that. Give that-”

“Back to him? Yeah. Probably.”

“Or…”

“Never tell him?”

“Yeah that one.”

 


End file.
